Two Elements Combined
by NephilimEQ
Summary: Harry has a bit of a problem with his wards and takes Bob along to meet a friend...who ends up helping them in a surprising way. PLEASE READ & REVIEW!
1. Chapter 1

**A.N. - First Dresden Files fan fiction and it _will_ be Harry/Bob romance eventually...please give me your thoughts on how to proceed!**

* * *

**Chapter 1**

"Bob!"

At hearing Harry's usual dulcet tones, the ghost stuck his head through the wall of the lab and looked out into the apartment, from where he'd heard his master's voice emanate. He was hesitant to come out, recognizing the aggravated tone, but sighed to himself and decided to simply get it over with.

He came completely through the wall and walked down the hall to find Harry in an almost frantic state, pacing the floor of his main living area.

"Harry? Is something the matter?"

At hearing Bob's voice, Dresden's eyes snapped up and he immediately stopped pacing.

"Oh thank god, you're here…I, uh, have a problem."

"Since when do you _not_ have a problem," the blonde ghost muttered under his breath, deliberately making it loud enough so that his master could hear.

The wizard glared at him and then quickly tried to explain.

"Our wards…" Bob raised an eyebrow at that and Harry amended his statement. "Alright, _my_ wards have been weakened and nothing I'm doing has helped it at all. So, I got curious, cast a couple of diagnostic spells…and I still got nothin'…"

He looked at his old mentor and let out a sigh.

"…And I thought you might see somethin' that I missed. I've been up for a couple of days, so I'm a bit out of it. So…could you? Please?"

It was the last word that made up the deceased necromancer's mind, so he nodded in the affirmative.

"Of course. Just, do each diagnostic spell when I ask for it, and I'll tell you what comes up."

Harry nodded and cast the first spell. Bob walked around the room, looking at each of the runes along the beams of the ceiling and along some of the supporting wooden columns. Nothing was out of place, so he simply nodded and motioned towards Harry, so he cast the next spell.

Bob began to do another circuit of the room, but he suddenly stopped.

"Harry," he said, his tone one of exasperation. "Come here, please."

Feeling once more like a wayward student at the tone in his old mentor's voice, he walked over next to Bob, giving him a slightly confused look. Bob motioned his hand towards the beam that he had stopped under and then used the same hand to cover his face, as though in shame.

Harry looked up at it.

"What? What am I supposed to be seeing here? Everything looks fine to me."

At hearing that, Bob groaned.

"Good god, you _are_ tired, aren't you? If you were in your right mind you never would have missed it. Quickly," he asked, "what direction does that wall face?"

Without hesitation, Harry said, "East."

Bob nodded. "Very good, my young apprentice," he said, his voice slightly mocking as well as disappointed. "Now, if that wall faces east, then where is the rune for "East" on that beam, hmm?"

At that, Harry paled and his eyes dropped to the floor as he sat himself down on the couch. He put both of his hands over his face and leaned forward so that his elbows were on his knees and he let out a loud groan of what Bob guessed to be a mixture of frustration, exhaustion, and anger at himself for missing something so glaringly obvious.

From behind his hands, he muttered, "Are all the compass runes missing, Bob?"

Quickly, Bob looked at the glowing symbols on the four beams around the room and he nodded.

"Yes. They've most likely worn down. Which means, for all intents and purposes, that you are vulnerable to all effects of the ley lines in the surrounding area, instead of being protected from them."

At hearing this, Harry threw his head back and shook his now clenched fists towards the ceiling, while Bob tried not be amused by his protégé's exasperation. Though his absentmindedness was amusing, the lack of the runes was not. Those runes kept the ley lines from interfering with the magic in the lab…and they needed them back on.

But, of course, therein lay the problem.

Gently, Bob said, "You do realize who we need to call...right?"

Harry lifted his head from the back of the couch and nodded.

"Yeah, yeah, I know…I'm just trying to think of anything else that we can do instead." Bob chuckled and Harry looked at him and gave him one of his lopsided grins. "You know that she's going to try and make me pay up from the last time, right?"

Bob nodded and let out another chuckle.

"Oh, yes…and I'm sure that she'll be, uh,_ creative_ about it."

"You can count on that."

Harry pushed himself off the couch and Bob watched as he stretched and heard a pop in his back. The ghost winced slightly at the sound and at that moment desperately wished that he was corporeal simply so he could ease Harry's tension. He was a master of shiatsu and seeing the man in pain was not easy for him.

It was times like this that it hit him very hard that he was quite ineffective and practically useless.

He missed being able to simply reach out and touch something, like a wall. There had been times when Harry was a child that he'd simply wanted to reach out and hold him, to reassure him through physical touch that he would be okay.

Bob instead followed behind him as Harry walked into the other room and grabbed his jacket.

Realizing that Dresden was about to head out, he let out a long sigh.

"I'll go get in my skull," he said morosely, but was surprised when he saw Harry slip into the lab and come out with his eternally damned cerebral habitation.

"Oh no," said Harry, putting the cranium into a pack that he slid over his shoulder. "You're coming with me."

"I…I am?"

Harry nodded, and then motioned for Bob to follow him to the front room and then quickly explained as he grabbed a few extra things that he would need for the drive.

"Oh, yeah. She tolerates me only because I pay her and I help her out from time to time." Harry gave Bob a pointed look as he emphasized his next sentence. "However, she actually _likes_ you, likes you. Like, a crush-on-you type likes you. Which means, if you come along, she'll be in a better mood and might forget that I owe her."

"She…she has a…a _crush_ on me?"

Harry turned his head and gave his ghostly mentor a reassuring smile.

"Yeah, and why not? You're a likeable enough guy. And, I guess, according to her, crushable."

Bob couldn't help but smile at that and then say, with a bit of amusement in his tone, "Ah, well, at least you're finally planning ahead. My, how you've grown. So, what's the rest of the plan?"

Harry gave him a half smile as he stuffed one last thing into the bag alongside the skull.

"I don't know…I haven't thought that far ahead." He pointed at the cranial cavity and raised an eyebrow at him. "Now, get on in."

Though Bob was inwardly thrilled at being brought along, he rolled his eyes and turned to his usual black ash and red sparks and slipped back into his mobile home, where he then said…

"Did you have to put the motherwort next to me? I won't be able to get the smell out for _weeks_."

Harry grinned and walked out to his car, a slight spring in his step. Though he was decidedly _not_ looking forward to the meeting that he had to go to, he was glad that he had Bob along. He'd discovered that he actually enjoyed the snarky, smart remarks and the sarcasm of the deceased wizard.

Not that he would ever tell _him _that.

It took about an hour and a half, but they were there.

Stepping out of the car, he slipped the dark brown canvas bag over his shoulder and walked up to the house. It was on thirty acres of land and it was overrun with-

"Ughh!"

Cats. And dogs. And a lot of other animals.

He looked down to see what he had nearly tripped over and saw that the perpetrator this time was a cat. A large brown tabby…actually, if he wasn't mistaken, it was the same one that he had nearly killed himself tripping over the _last_ time that he'd been there.

He scoured his memory…

"Osiris."

The cat meowed in response and walked in front of him, indicating with a twitch of his tail that he should follow. Harry did as the…cat…asked, and soon was up the front porch, and watched as Osiris disappeared through a partially open window.

Before he could even raise his hand to knock, the door swung open.

Standing in the door frame was a five-foot-three, long-haired British brunette with hazel eyes and a temper to rival any hellion.

"Harry Dresden…long time, no see."

He gave her a broad smile and started to take a step forward and was suddenly stopped by a fierce slap across his left cheek.

"That's for not paying me last time."

He rubbed his jaw and gave her another smile, this one full of genuine surprise, as well as a hint of humor.

"Good to see you, too, Elizabeth."

* * *

**Part 1/?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

_He gave her a broad smile and started to take a step forward and was suddenly stopped by a fierce slap across his left cheek._

"_That's for not paying me last time."_

_He rubbed his jaw and gave her another smile, this one full of genuine surprise, with a hint of humor._

"_Good to see you, too, Elizabeth."_

She then smiled and stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him. "And this," she whispered in his ear, "Is for bringing Bob along." She then pulled back and gave him a large smile and beckoned him into the front room.

"Bob, come on out," he muttered under his breath, and the man appeared.

"Elizabeth…" Bob breathed, and she smiled.

"Bob…I've missed you. Too bad you had to bring the dead-weight along," she said, motioning toward the wizard with a tilt of her head.

Bob rolled his eyes.

"He follows me wherever I go. It's pathetic, really."

They shared a humorous look between them, both of them pretending to ignore the fact that Harry was rolling his eyes next to them, but he silently put up with it, knowing that Elizabeth Camden was fond of her flirtation time with Bob. And that having her happy would yield _him_ better results in the long run at getting her to do him his favor.

He turned to go into her front sitting room, but felt something around his ankles and stopped moving on instinct, hoping not to get tripped up again.

Harry looked down. It was Osiris.

"Cat, if you break my neck, you're paying the medical expenses," he muttered under his breath to the feline that was now weaving in between his ankles.

Osiris simply purred, rubbing himself along the wizard's calves, perfectly content to stay right where he was.

Harry let out a soft groan, catching Elizabeth's attention, and she pulled away from her flirting with Bob long enough to say, "Harry, don't worry. Osiris likes you, you big numbskull." She looked at Bob in apology of her turn of phrase. "Sorry, no offense."

"None taken, milady," Bob said, grinning slightly at Harry's predicament.

"Could you get the cat off my ankles, please? I've got to get some stuff out of my bag."

Elizabeth arched one perfectly shaped eyebrow.

"Just ask him yourself."

Feeling slightly odd, the wizard looked down at the brown tabby, wondering if she was serious, but decided to give her the benefit of the doubt.

"Uh, Osiris?" The cat mewed in response. "Uh, can I have my feet back? I, uhm," he hesitated again, realizing he was trying to explain things to a cat, but for some odd reason he could swear that Osiris was giving him a look that said he was waiting for a good reason why he should move. Finally, he said, "I need some help from your mistress, here, and so I need to go into the other room so I can give her what she needs. Is that okay with you?"

Bob, watching this with thinly veiled amusement, was slightly surprised when the cat gave a soft yowl in response to Harry's question, and then stepped out from under him, his tail gently flicking across the top of Harry's right foot as it went into the other room and perched on top of the couch, laying down facing the empty fireplace.

"Okay…now _that_ was odd." Bob nodded in agreement with Harry's statement, and Elizabeth rolled her eyes at the both of them.

"You guys are idiots sometimes…he's my _familiar_. Of course he understands what you're saying, because _I_ understand what you're saying."

Both of them feeling slightly embarrassed at missing the obvious, they avoided direct eye contact with each other, and Harry quickly occupied himself with pulling out a few of the supplies that he knew that she wouldn't have around the house.

"I brought the extra ingredients," he said as he walked into the sitting room and over to the couch where the brown tabby perched.

He pulled them out and placed them on the vintage apothecary table…which, now that he cast a second look at it, he was aware she was actually _using_ as an apothecary table.

Elizabeth gave him a look from the doorway, where she still stood with Bob, and then walked into the room, stopping briefly behind the couch to run a loving hand across Osiris's back, who purred in response to her familiar touch.

Bob observed from the doorway as the two of them began to silently haggle over a price and he took a quick look around the room.

It was a lovely home, he had to say. Craftsman style, but with slightly lighter wood and a much more open feel, reminiscent of Druidic type homes back in Ireland.

He'd never been to Elizabeth Camden's home before, as she had always come to Harry's, but now he understood why she never left it.

Even though he was a ghost, he could still feel the residual pull of magic coming from around the house. It was in the trees; wherever a branch touched the house, magic seeped into the wood frame. Magic seeped into the foundation and up into the floorboards from the ground below…

…It was everywhere.

He heard a noise and looked down to see another cat, one not Osiris, near his own ankles, softly purring.

This one, however, was black…and large. Not fat, simply large. Almost as though it was part wildcat.

Bob was at a loss at what to do, as he was a ghost and could not touch the animal, but it looked up at him expectantly, as though waiting for his hand along its head or for a reassuring rub across its back and flank. He simply stood there, his non-corporeal arms hanging at his sides.

The cat looked up at him and let out a low yowl.

He held his arms out in a gesture of defeat.

"I'm sorry, my friend…if I could, I would pet you. As it is, I can't…" He paused, remembering an old familiar of his when he was alive and then sighed. "Such a shame, really, as I really _do_ love cats."

The was not deterred by this and instead attempted to rub its head against his leg, but, of course, encountered nothing, and, surprisingly, it did not bolt. Strange. Harry had told him once that having Bob walk through him was like having ice water dumped in his veins, but this animal had no reaction to him…in fact, it seemed to enjoy the sensation as it started to purr, though Bob could feel nothing.

"Uh…Elizabeth…" he said, raising his tone at the end of her name, attempting to get her attention, and she and Harry both looked up.

He gestured to the animal at his side.

"Your cat is…well, he's attempting to get my affection, and I feel horrible that I cannot return it, yet somehow he's…"

He motioned once more to the floor and Elizabeth merely gave him an enigmatic smile in response.

"His name is Ra, and you don't have to worry…he can feel you just fine."

At this, both Bob and Harry looked at her in surprise and she gave them both a long suffering look, accompanied with a soft sigh.

"There's a reason why I own so many cats, and it's not just because I'm fond of them…"

She stood and, immediately, Ra made his way over to her side and Osiris, at the same time, slipped from off the top of the couch and joined Ra, both of them twisting in and out of her ankles as she walked across the floor over to where Bob stood.

She then leaned over and gently ran her hand over both of their heads and said, "They're half in and half out of the spirit realm, which makes them perfect companions for the work that I do." She gave Bob a small smile. "That's why Ra can feel you just fine; he's attuned with the spiritual realm. Rubbing against your energies is the same as if you were petting him directly..."

Bob slowly nodded his head, vaguely realizing what she was trying to say to them, but Harry still looked slightly confused.

"Harry…Bob. Both of you should know by now that I'm not a witch and I'm not a sorceress…"

Very gently, she raised her left hand and pulled back the sleeve of her dark blue Henley, showing Bob the inside of her wrist, and Bob's eyes widened in comprehension at what he saw.

"Oh…I see."

She nodded, and then he said, "So that explains the location and all of the wood in the home." She nodded, and then Harry stood, a frustrated look on his face.

"Am I missing something here? Cause when I'm left out of the loop, bad things tend to happen; not by my choosing, mind you." He then muttered under his breath, "Of course, bad things tend to happen when I'm _in_ the loop, anyway…"

Bob nodded, agreeing with Harry's comment, and then simply said,

"She's a primarial, Harry."

The room went silent, the air fraught with tension, and then Harry said,

"And that is…?"

* * *

**Part 2/?**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"_She's a primarial, Harry."_

_The room went silent, the air fraught with tension, and then Harry said,_

"_And that is…?"_

At hearing this, Bob groaned. Did the boy never pay attention? Did he never read the books that he'd been given?

Quickly, Bob tried to figure out how to explain it to Harry in the simplest of terms, but Elizabeth beat him to the punch.

"I work the natural magics, Harry. Elemental magics." She looked down at Osiris and Ra and then crouched down to them and placed a hand on each of their heads, looking into their eyes. "Take a look around the perimeter, okay you two? Round up the others as well. It's dinner time," she finished, standing back up, and the ghost watched in amusement as the cats sauntered off in opposite directions, while Harry still looked confused.

"Okay…so you work with nature magic, big deal. So do I, so what's the big issue here?"

Elizabeth and Bob shared a look, and Bob could see that her patience was wearing thin, so Bob took over the explanation.

"No, Harry. She works with _natural_ magic, not _nature_ magic. There is a difference."

Harry looked skeptical, but he nodded.

"Okay, enlighten me."

Bob then began to fully explain, and as he did so, he and Harry followed their host to the kitchen in the back of the house.

"As wizards, we work with light and dark magic, also known as White Magic and Black Magic. However, these magics are not inherent in nature, they are a corruption of pure elemental magic forms, namely those tied to the spiritual realm, and not the natural one. Are you following?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, so far."

"Good." He continued. "The elemental magics, the natural ones, are much more stable than the forms of magic that we, as wizards, use, due to the fact that they are naturally occurring. They have an instinctive balance and will correct themselves if things are out of balance, unlike our corrupted forms of light and dark magic."

Harry nodded again, but then gestured absently in the air as he asked, "But what does that have to do with Elizabeth?"

Bob looked over at her, but she had her back to the both of them, fixing the cats their dinner. He sighed.

"Within certain families there exists a, a gift if you will, for calling on the natural magics and actually using them. I, when I was a wizard, as powerful as I was, was not able to access these magics because of their inherent nature of being balanced. We, as wizards, cannot dabble in both light and dark, so we must choose a side…sadly to say, I was more tainted by the dark, but it wouldn't have mattered either way, as either way I had chosen a side."

Harry gave a slow nod and continued along the thought process out loud.

"Because our magic is corrupted, it doesn't allow for balance, it must either be all light magic or dark, so it wouldn't matter whether or not we chose a side, simply by being wizards, we're cut off from the natural magics…"

His voice faded and Bob nodded, pleased that Harry grasped it so quickly.

Harry then looked up at him, a closed look on his face.

"Is that…is that why you were so worried when I…when I used…?" He couldn't finish the question, but Bob knew what he was asking. Bob said nothing, but tilted his head slightly in his corporeal friend's direction, answering it for him.

Yes. That had been why he was worried.

Harry then said, "So, Elizabeth is one of those people with access to the natural magics, the balanced side of things…"

"Yes, exactly. Actually," Bob quickly explained, seeing his opening. "That's why she's the one who has to set those runes for your wards to keep out the ley lines, and why your…_shoddy_…reinforcement spells will only work for so long until nature takes it back."

Harry gave Bob a long look and then looked over to Elizabeth, who was now kneeling on the floor and now had approximately seven cats around her.

They were in the color range from Ra's solid black, all the way to a pure white cat on the far right.

There was Ra, who was a shining matte black, and had bright emerald eyes; then a dark, charcoal grey with faint darker stripes on its legs, tail, and face with dark green eyes; and then there was a seal brown one with dark blue eyes; then there was Osiris with his simple golden brown coat and light gold eyes; there was then a golden tabby, with a thick fur coat and matching yellow eyes; then there was a light tan one with pale blue eyes, and finally the white one with deep gold eyes.

She looked up from where she was crouched on the kitchen tile and caught Harry's eye, and for a brief moment her eyes seemed almost…cat-like. But then they were normal again, and she gave him a smile and slowly stood back up, whispering something to the felines that only they could hear.

She then walked back over to Bob and Harry and pulled up her sleeve once more, showing Harry what she'd showed Bob only a few minutes before.

"It's a mark that runs in my family. It's what marks us as, well, elementals, though we're still completely human. We just, have a few perks…"

Harry gave her a look, an eyebrow raised.

"A few perks? You make it sound like a job."

Elizabeth's eyes turned dark.

"Yeah…that's because it is. One that I had no say in." She walked over to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water, and then took a long swallow before continuing. "I was ten years old when I was told that this was what I was going to be doing for the rest of my life. Having your life already decided for you…it's not as great as it sounds."

At hearing this, Harry felt a pang of sympathy, realizing that he'd felt himself in a similar position once before.

"Sorry to hear that."

She just shrugged her shoulders and tilted her head to the side for a brief moment.

"It's not so bad…but it does limit my time with the outside world. With your world," she said pointedly, and then took another long drink of the water.

"So," she said, after finishing her sip. "I'll go ahead and put the compass wards back up on your apartment, but I can't do them from here, you know that, right?" Harry let out a strained sigh, but she gave him a stern look. "I'm serious, Harry. I can't do this from a distance. You _know_ I need to be there."

He ducked his head, rubbing his hand across the back of his neck, looked incongruously over at Bob, and then nodded.

"Okay, fine. Just…just make it quick, alright?"

Elizabeth nodded.

"Won't be a problem. Just give me a moment to be pack, and we can be out of here by one o' clock, alright?"

With that, she left the kitchen and headed upstairs to her room to grab her go-bag that had the necessary supplies, as well as the change of clothes that she would be needing for the warding, and her mind wandered to Harry's reaction to her coming over to his house.

He'd never objected to her coming over in the past, so why was he so reluctant to let her over now?

She thought over his body language, and then remembered his look towards Bob…did it have something to do with the deceased wizard?

Realizing that it wasn't her place to conjecture, she grabbed her coat from her chair and headed back downstairs.

Careful to stay out of sight a sound for a few moments, she snuck a glance over the railing and smiled at what she saw. Harry and Bob were sharing a conversation and both of them were smiling. Every now and again, Harry gestured with a hand and reached out slightly, but then would pull his hand back in an infinitesimally small movement. That was when she realized that he was attempting to touch his lifelong friend, but consciously having to remind himself each time that he wasn't solid, that he was a ghost.

Their body language said so much, as did their facial expressions.

Elizabeth was not ashamed to admit that she found Bob to be quite dashing and, well, gorgeous in her eyes…but it seemed that she was not the only person who felt that way.

She recognized that look in Harry's eyes, even if neither of them did.

It was longing.

A longing to touch the man that he loved.

She felt a faint ache in her breastbone and let out a sigh and descended the rest of the staircase, pretending as though she hadn't been standing there the entire time, watching the two of them.

"Let's go," she said, picking up Osiris, who had wandered into the entrance hall, and gave him a quick kiss goodbye. "You keep an eye on the homestead for me, alright?"

Osiris mewed and she put him back down and followed Dresden out to his car, where Bob disappeared into his skull and they got into Harry's vintage jeep. As they drove along the highway, she found herself glancing at the bag that Bob's skull was in…and she formed a plan.

* * *

**Part 3/?**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"So," said Harry, opening the door for her and letting her into the house first. "Here's the place, you've seen it before." He then slid past her and pulled out Bob's skull and placed it on the table in the front room, and then headed on through the apartment.

"Come on out, Bob," he yelled as he walked towards the back. "I'm just getting some extra supplies, just in case we need them."

At Harry's command, Bob appeared.

Bob nodded to Elizabeth and then walked into the living area of the front room, motioning for her to follow him.

"This is where we set up the primary wards," he explained.

She'd followed and watched as he motioned towards the supporting beams and the supporting wooden columns. Quickly, she cleared out an area in the center of the room, moving the coffee table to the side, giving her an area to sit and do the spells that were necessary to put up the wards.

She pointed at a beam.

"This is the east wall, correct?"

Bob nodded, and he watched, his eyes widening in surprise, as she then started to strip off not just her coat, but her shirt as well, revealing a black, lacy bra, and she then reached down to slide her jeans down her legs, and he quickly turned around, feeling as though he were imposing on her.

"Uh, Elizabeth…what exactly are you doing?" he asked from his position of not facing her.

He heard more rustling of clothing behind him and he quickly came to the conclusion that she'd just stripped off _all_ of her clothes, and she said,

"I'm setting up to do the spell of course. I can't have anything between myself and the materials I'm working with."

Bob shook his head, pinching his nose between two fingers as though he were getting a headache, even though he couldn't get one, and he let out a groan, still in some slight disbelief that she had completely disrobed behind him.

"I don't remember you having to do this the _last_ time you did these wards."

Just as she was about to answer, Bob saw Harry enter the room, ingredients in hand, and just before Bob could warn him, he saw Harry soon assume the same position that Bob was in, facing away from the front room, a look of shock on his face. Amazingly, he hadn't dropped any of the ingredients.

"Uh, Lizzy…why are you naked in my living room? 'Cause I'm flattered, really, but all I really need is the spell, so-"

"Oh, you and your ego," she said, snapping at him and cutting him off, her British accent sounding harsh with her biting tone. "It's for the spell, you idiot. And don't call me Lizzy."

"Uh, I don't remember there being nudity involved with this last time," he said, unknowingly echoing Bob's recent comments, and she quickly responded.

"Well, just as I was about to tell your partner, here, Harry, this is _different_ from the last few times that I've done this. The other times," she explained, "I was only having to reinforce worn down rune spells, but this time I'm having to replace them entirely, hence the new lack of wardrobe."

"Oh…"

"Yeah, oh."

With that, Harry started to turn to give her what he had in his hands, and then he stopped halfway through and then turned back to his original position and simply put them into a small box he grabbed from the kitchen and slid them across the now empty floor, not once looking in her direction.

"Uh, here you go. Uhm…you need anything else, just ask. Just don't ask me to turn around," he amended, and Bob couldn't stop a small smile from crossing the corner of his lips.

For all of Harry acting like a ladies man, he really was very modest. It was just one of his many redeemable qualities that set him apart from the rest of the Morningways, and what made him Harry Dresden, Wizard.

As they listened to her begin an incantation, which sounded to Bob to be in Gaelic, they shared a quick look and then looked in separate directions.

Harry, however, was acutely aware of the fact that there was a naked woman in his apartment…and he was also aware of the fact that neither he nor Bob were looking at her, and, instead, were attempting to _not_ look at each _other_. Harry wondered about that, and why he felt almost embarrassed to look at his teacher. Was it because of Elizabeth…?

Or…was it because of something else?

Was it because of that thing that he could not say? That thing that he was not willing to admit?

He remained silent.

* * *

**Part 4/?**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Curious about his reaction to the situation, Harry glanced over towards his ghostly mentor, taking care to make sure his look went unnoticed.

He drew in a sharp breath at the sight that met his eyes, but quickly had to disguise it to keep his friend from noticing his reaction.

He'd caught Bob in an off-guarded moment, one where he was being neither snarky nor sarcastic, his face open, and Harry could not deny the stunning stark beauty of the man, though ghost he may be. His white hair and pale eyes, along with his pale skin, made him seem as though he'd been carved from marble and then covered with sheer curtains.

He could tell, even in the clothes that Bob covered himself with, that the man had been in very good physical condition when he'd died.

The trousers that he consistently wore were of a material that clung to his legs when he moved, revealing firm calves and thighs that had probably been used many times. Harry couldn't also help but notice the breadth of his shoulders beneath the fitted suit, and for some odd reason felt his fingers aching to move at the sight.

He wondered how much of it was accurate, and how much of it was simply Bob's projection of himself the way he remembered being…it was intriguing question, but one that was not easily asked or answered.

Quickly, he tamped down on his reaction and instead tried to focus on the words that Elizabeth was speaking behind him.

His Gaelic was a bit rusty, but he was catching enough of it to understand the basics, and vowed to review his Gaelic. He had a few spells that required him to be fairly fluent in it. Incongruously, he suddenly remembered that she had no clothes on.

Feeling self-conscious, yet again, he moved his gaze from looking towards his office back to the floor, briefly wondering what was going on in his ghostly friend's mind…

* * *

Bob, as soon as Elizabeth had started the incantation, had let himself get lost in thought, trying to distract himself from the fact that she was naked.

For some strange reason, he felt no urge to look at her, which was extremely odd considering his usual penchant for all things inappropriate.

However, he thought of her as a friend, and to look at her in such a way would feel wrong. No matter how much of a crush she may have on him, which was something that he was still coming to terms with. He'd never considered himself attractive, and when he'd been alive he hadn't attracted anyone simply with his physical charms.

He'd attracted people usually through his abilities and his power, something that he had in spades.

As he thought of this, he glanced over at Harry from the corner of his eye.

Harry, on the other hand, was able to attract people to him with just a wink and a smile.

He would have looked out of place in Bob's day, as he was so tall, but he still would have attracted people to him. He was a tall, dark, mysterious type of figure; guaranteed to have women around him at nearly all times.

A man that could command a room with a look…and yet, he was the last man to ever want that. He had so many good qualities, but they were buried beneath his horrible self-esteem, and so he could never see them; even though they were numerous.

Sometimes Bob felt as though if he could simply _touch_ Harry, a squeeze of his shoulder, a grip on the arm…or even the grasp of a hand, that he might be able to tell Harry how much he truly meant to him, and how much a good person that he really was, but the man would do nothing but deny it, no matter how hard he tried. It was as though Harry didn't believe he deserved to have anyone care for him. Perhaps that was the reason why he sometimes pushed Bob away when he got too close, emotionally speaking.

Harry seemed distracted and unnerved, moving his hands restlessly over his jeans and shirt, as though brushing off unseen dirt.

Bob wondered at this, and finally came to the conclusion that it was simple nerves at the fact that Elizabeth was sans-clothing behind him.

A small grin appeared at the corner of his mouth and he bit his lip slightly, trying to keep Harry from seeing it.

Luckily, Harry didn't seem to notice Bob's amusement, so the deceased necromancer took it in stride and waited a moment longer before asking, "Elizabeth? Are you nearly done? It's been quite some time, and even _I_ know that runes don't take _that_ long to replace."

They heard a rustle of movement and then her clear British tone said,

"You can turn around now. I'm decent, I swear it."

As they exchanged a look between the each other, both of them unknowingly mirrored each other's expression, with a single raised eyebrow and a slight smirk on their lips. They then turned to face Elizabeth and both of them were slightly confused by the slight smirk on her lips, but neither said anything about it.

"So," said Harry, breaking the silence that was beginning to be awkward. "You need to go anywhere, or do you want to stay for lunch?"

Her smirk spread into a wide grin.

"Lunch sounds great."

And with that, she picked up her bag and walked past them and down the hall.

Harry grinned at Bob.

"Lizzy's staying for lunch," he said, and then they heard from down the short hall… "_Don't_ call me Lizzy!"

* * *

**Part 5/?**


End file.
